"Maritime forces face two major challenges as they seek to hone their anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities to counter the threats of the early 21st century. First they must adapt and modernise their ASW assets to overcome the problems inherent in attempting to detect, classify and prosecute submarines in the acoustically poor waters of the littoral. Second is the fight to gain funding for the development and deployment of these self-same new technologies and capabilities required for littoral ASW operations.